Trump's Board of Peace envoy warns Gaza ceasefire faces 'point of no return' as Israel rejects disarmament roadmap
A senior official on U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace has warned that a collapse of last October's Gaza ceasefire would represent "a point of no return" for the region, criticising both continuing Israeli air strikes and Hamas's military activities in parallel. Nickolay Mladenov, the Board's high representative for Gaza, delivered the warning in an address to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, the BBC reported.
By Source Reporters Newsdesk
Thu, 27 August 2026 · 2 min read
A senior official on U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace has warned that a collapse of last October's Gaza ceasefire would represent "a point of no return" for the region, criticising both continuing Israeli air strikes and Hamas's military activities in parallel. Nickolay Mladenov, the Board's high representative for Gaza, delivered the warning in an address to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, the BBC reported.
Mladenov was speaking after Israel formally rejected the 15-point roadmap for Hamas's disarmament announced by the Board of Peace last month. Under that roadmap, Hamas would give up its weapons in exchange for a phased Israeli troop withdrawal, with a Palestinian technocratic committee governing Gaza under Board supervision. Hamas has agreed to the framework in principle, but Israel insists the group must fully disarm before any pullback occurs.
According to the BBC, citing figures from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, at least 1,303 Palestinians — including 300 children — have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire began. The Israeli military says four of its soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks over the same period. The UN considers the health ministry's toll reliable.
Mladenov acknowledged that both sides were undermining the fragile ceasefire. "A ceasefire in fact under which civilians are still buried is not yet one that the people of Gaza can really feel," he said. "Every use of force that does not answer an immediate threat, and every incident that the deconfliction mechanism was not asked to resolve, costs this process something very hard to buy back." He added that Hamas too had yet to meet its commitment to cease all military activities, the BBC reported.
The sequencing of Israeli withdrawal versus Hamas disarmament remains a central sticking point. Mladenov said the Board's roadmap specifies that troop withdrawal "follows verified decommissioning" of Hamas weapons — a sequenced, reciprocal arrangement. That directly conflicts with remarks made by President Trump's envoy Jared Kushner after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two weeks ago, when Kushner said Israeli withdrawal would be discussed only once demilitarisation was fully "done," according to the BBC.
Mladenov gave a stark assessment of the consequences if the ceasefire collapses. "There will be no roadmap to return to, there will be no administration to deploy, and there will be nothing left of the ground to rebuild," he said. "That would not be a setback. It would be a point of no return for everyone." Israel's representative told the Security Council the government remained committed to last October's U.S.-brokered plan but maintained "Disarmament must come first." The war was triggered by the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages being taken.
**Sources:** BBC
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